Bringing you the horribly depressing and hopefully uplifting human rights headlines from around the globe ...

Sunday, September 11, 2011

11 September 2011

AFRICA

Gambia = Attorney Moses Richards, human rights advocate and defense attorney, is himself the defendant on a criminal case for “disrespecting the Office of the Preseident” among other offenses. The Banjul Lower Court is expected to issue its verdict tomorrow; Richards has been in detention at the National Intelligence Agency HQ in Banjul since December 30th, 2010.(FIDH)

Somalia = The famine is set to remain in effect until the October 2012 harvest, leading to an estimated 750,000 people dying of hunger this year. (FPA)

Tunisia = Yay! The government withdrew all of its specific reservations to CEDAW (The Convention on the Elimination of Violence Against Women). Next step? Rewrite all domestic laws to conform to CEDAW's standards. (HRW)

AMERICAS

United States = Are life-saving medicines valid intellectual property claims? If the US implements the IP policies proposed in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, developing countries will lose access to affordable generic drugs, resulting in many preventable deaths. (DWB)

ASIA

China = Water rights = human rights. Approximately 345,000 people have been moved into substandard government housing after being removed from their farmlands to make way for governmental “reallocation of water resources” to Beijing. (GRD)

MIDDLE EAST

Iraq = Journalist Hadi al-Mahdi appears to have been executed in cold blood in his home this week. He had been planning to attend and likely report on a planned protest in Tahrir Square. His Radio Demozy show was known for being wickedly political, witty and irreverent. He had been detained overnight in February with other journalists and threatened with rape before being released. (AI, HRW)

ALSO OF INTEREST

Higher taxes = happiness?

“Using Gallup numbers from 2007, University of Virginia psychologist Shigehiro Oishi looked into the relationship between tax systems and quality-of-life polling in 54 nations. He discovered a direct correlation between a country's tax progressiveness and its happiness: On average, people taxed under the most progressive rates were more likely than anyone else to evaluate their lives as 'the best possible.' They also reported having more enjoyable daily experiences, and fewer negative ones.” (GOOD)